Can power exist without building huge muscles?

First let me describe to ya'll with what I'm working with. I'm 6'1" and roughly (haven't weighed myself in a while) 285lbs. I'm a big guy with the build of a football player. Broad shoulders and thick neck and so on. I'm not wanting to build muscle per say, but I do wanna become stronger then what I naturally am (which I guess is okay for my size) plus I also wanna tone. By tone I mean I wanna have some sort of definition.
What are some exercises that I can do to increase my strength and tone by body? Should I do more reps with less weight or the other way around? What kind of diet should I go on? Thanks for any help I receive.

 

You should really look around the forum for advice on weightlifting and conditioning. I would recommend that you start doing a high weight, low rep lifting regime, do tabata intervals of calisthenics and other anaerobic conditioning exercises, and eat small meals that consist of lean protein and green vegetables.

We will also recommend that you do compound lifts, like pullups, bench press, shoulder press, rows, deadlifts, squats, and powercleans.

Just a general answer to your question. Also, if you are interested in seeing the results of such a program with regard to strength gain and "tone," I can give you a link to my fitness journal, which shows some of my programs and my before and after photos.

 

I would appreciate the link. I will also add that I do have a back problem. Don't know the spelling for everything that is wrong and I'm not going to embarrass myself with all these misspelled words, but basically my spine is falling apart. There is no cure for it and it runs in my family. I am limited to what I can lift and movements I can do. I know this doesn't make things easier, however, I can lift weights and exercise but I have to take my time and do it slowly. I'm not crippled just limited...if that makes sense. Like I've said before I can lift weights I just need to do it slowly and rest every so often to rest my back.

 

Are you looking for power as in strength or power as in explosiveness?

 

reminder

big =! huge

 

I don't see why anyone wouldn't want to have huge muscles, I really don't.

 

This will sound like a newb question, but what is explosiveness?

 

explosiveness is like the speed someone can do something, its almost like storing up all ur energy then using it all at one time in a quick hard movement, like when you see someone shooting in for a double leg take down or something and they fire in quick and pick them up and drop them, instead of taking their sweet time getting both legs then standing up slowly. Or like in football drills when you stand on the line and the lineman explode forward into the other line. Kinda hard to explain lol, im sure someone will have a better definition if you dont understand mine

 

am talking about strength to be able to move heavy objects. as far as my power to "explode" i am working on my technique first. have been out of the martial arts for so long i wanna do everything right.

 

Basically when people say "explosiveness," it refers to power, which is the ability of a muscle to do x work over y time. So if you can move a very large amount of weight in a short time, you are said to have more power, or explosiveness than a person who can move the same amount of weight in a longer time. In addition, your power, or "explosiveness," will transfer into your Martial Arts performance because the more power you have the faster and more effectively you'll be able to execute your techniques. As to your question about building huge muscles . . . if you are 6'1" and 285, you've probably already GOT huge muscles. You just want to lose weight and get stronger. Consult a sports physiotherapist on what kind of strength routine you can indulge in and get back to us.

 

dont even worry about explosiveness until you can reach close to your top absolute strength and then maintain that, you want strength and you want to tone? dont do high reps, thats for endurance,
there is not really such thing as toning your muscles, you build them or you dont, if you want to look more defined you need to lose fat.

do anywhere between 1-12 reps, varying it, lower reps for more absolute strength, but there are more than 1 and possibly more than 2 fast twitch muscles so dont just do 2 reps or 8 reps.

you weigh a lot, how strong are you? like your squat, deadlift, bench, shoulder press?

for your diet eat legumes, grains, seeds, nuts, and beans, fruits and vegetables all whole, not white rice or anything like that.

 

hmm... these are nice supplements in addition to milk, eggs and beef/red meat... all good primary sources of protein.

 

If you're after strength, I'm in agreement that lower reps with heavier weights will give you what you want. Try this workout out, it's three times a week and no more than 60 min each time so it's pretty ideal. One I've used myself with great results.

Day One is back squats (4 sets of 6 reps), pull-ups (4 sets of max reps), and bent-over rows (4 sets of 8 reps). For the squats and rows, make your sets progressive so you start off light and add weight each set until you're going 100% on the last set. For the pull-ups, palms out and work these hard.

Day Two is bench press (5 sets of 5 reps), clean and press (4 sets of 6 reps), and dumbbell farmer's walk (2-3 sets of max weight for 100ft with a turn at 50ft). Once again, progressive sets. For benching, you want a shoulder width grip with a decent arch. For the clean and press, clean each rep then strict press it. For the dumbbell farmer's walk, grab two heavy dumbbells, walk 50ft, turn 180 degrees, then walk back. Great exercise.

Day Three is deadlifts (4 sets of 6 reps), dips (4 sets of max reps), and barbell curls (4 sets of 8 reps). Do your deadlifts conventional style, double overhand grip until you can't handle it anymore then use a mixed grip. Do your dips as hard as you can, add weight once you can manage all the reps. Do your curls super strict.

You can do either M-W-F or T-T-S, depending on your schedule conflicts. Rest about 2 min between sets. Make sure you get plenty of sleep.

 

Oddly enough, it seems only the smaller guys say that.....

 

Why wouldn't a martial artist want big muscles? Mainly ignorance and buying into the garbage about losing speed, agility and flexibility. Due to genetics, not everyone can develop huge muscles just as not everyone will be able to run a sub-four minute mile, no matter how much they train. Also, most would not want to put in the time and effort that this requires, but I don't see why anyone would not want the advantages it gives them.

BTW, I'm not really one of the smaller guys.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLYnt3aijU0"]YouTube - Ernie Reyes : KJN David Hughes Sampler[/ame]

 

because the big guys already have big muscles?

 

He said he couldn't understand why anyone would want big muscles, not that he wanted them. In my experience it's only the small guys who say that kind of thing, we bigger guys are happy with what we've got.

 

he said wouldn't, not would

 

You know what, reading back I see you're correct. One of the downsides while posting on the midnight shift I suppose. Consider me corrected.

 

ive had pretty big muscles, and now i have ones quite a bit smaller, harder, less fat on me and they are almost as strong and i prefer that way more than bulking up. I don't know how to test my speed but it seems like im faster